 This didn't start as a blog, but I have a blog for almost everything else. The 2019 blog was getting too long so I started another one The 2016 blog was getting too long so I started another one The 2014 blog was getting too long so I started another one 22 Sept 2022 Well not much has happened but a little bit. I wrote another song with an old idea I had called Electro-Mechanical. I mostly like it I think it needs a bit more stuff at the end, and a better mix. Arcadia has a short instrumental, that I would like to expand, still needs lyrics and a better mix. Forced perspective needs some fixes, as the timing is off in a few parts, and a better mix. Then last night and the night before I wrote a short pop song called Smiling through my tears. I was thinking I would forward that to a project I am working on (that I will get to later), but I am selfish and am going to keep it for myself. I now want to add an epilogue onto it with some of the things I wrote after Bella died. A bit like Moody Blues style, poetry I guess. So this will probably be a full length release. Depending on the lengths of some of these things I may need 1 or 2 short songs, maybe some instrumental stuff like air currents. So I got a call to work on a demo for a branding company. In some ways it is a bit overwhemling, in others not so much. At any rate I need to start working on this, so my songs may take a back seat for a while. I also joined some Sask music thing, I am hoping that they can help me with booking some shows in the future. Possibly find a manager? OK I got work to do. 27 October 2022 I think that my new position at work and this side project I took on are just too much for me. I literally have no spare time. I have incrementally recorded a bit more. I have 4 songs for side 1, and 2 semi-complete songs for side 2. None of them have final versions. The songs are : Unicorn, Electro-Mechanical, Smiling Through My Tears, Forced Perspective, Arcadia, and an instrumental I haven't named yet. But I have sort of hit a wall. I really don't want to do any more until I have this project completed. Plus I have some long procrastinated projects that HAVE to be completed before it snows and stays. It has snowed once already. OH! But I do have some money and I found a new auction site. I bought 3 cards for the U-20 (so I am missing only 4), and aJuno-2, and a drum rack (so I can finally set up the 3 pads and drum controller I have). I also bought a new Roland E-4 voice tweaker (which is what made Unicorn possible). I finally started to update the homage web pages. I hope to have a few non-Roland keyboards in the next year or so, but I guess we will see. 18 November 2022 Not a lot has happened. I have just been too busy with work. Some 10 and 12 hour days. I am just too beat to do anything after. But I did play a bit, even played a short abridged show for my mom while she was visiting. I did add a funny song to the set. I wanted to include the Stylophone I got for Christmas, so I listened to some 60's instrumentals. I decided on the song called Theme to watch Space Girls by. I suck at it but it is fun to play. I keep thinking I want to do a Houseparty0.6 show, but it would have to be within a few weeks. With work and this side project and everything else I just don't know if I would have the time. I would like to play in Saskatoon or even Regina. I would need an opener and some practice, and some courage to call a few places. Bėker needs courage. 24 November 2022 So...... Right now I am sick AF. I was going to try to get the courage to call a few places with the intention of playing before Christmas. With me sick now, there just won't be time. Plus I would like a few things, it would be nice to have some cassettes to try to sell. That would take at least a month, after I set everything up. No, I guess I will have to shoot for sometime after Christmas. Seeing as I will be going on a trip in January, I should probably shoot for February or March. I have a list of things I want to have, and maybe I can work on the video for the Antigone show. Plus I have to get my ass in gear on that side project for Violet Lotus. It should have been done by now. I don't think I should do this again as I just don't have the time and I don't find it as interesting as writing my own songs. Plus I need to fix stuff. The Juno-2 needs a clean up on the keys, I have to see if the aftertouch is fixable, and I bought a new backlight for it. I turned on my JX and that needs some work too. Yeah I may do more keyboard playing than progamming this year, but that's all right. I just hate being sick. 30 November 2022 Still sick but made some progress with the side project today. I hope they like it because I am kinda wanting to get it finished so I can move on to other things. Had a couple of productive days, got a bunch of things done that I had been putting off. Practiced the Houseparty set. I backed up a few old Beker folders, and I could do a few more. Found some video of me singing a new idea while walking my dog, it just crushes me everytime. Anyway nothing new, but still playing. Oh came up with some ideas for another song. I may use them the way they are or maybe I will build on them. I wanted to work on Bad News First, which is what I am calling the instrumental, but I think it is already getting too late. I went through it a few times anyway and got a coupld of ideas for the stylophone, yes I will be using it in this song. 10 December 2022 I really wanted to do a show, but as time evaporated I started to realize that there just wasn't time. The only friday left was the 23 and I thought that was too close to Christmas. So for sure I want to book something in February or March. And I really want to book shows in Saskatoon and Regina. Maybe even further afield if I feel brave enough. And as far as the show goes, I am pretty close to being ready. Just need a couple of things like some ugly lamps, a big black piece of plastic, maybe a tire for the van, and as always lots of practice. Just reading back a bit and it looks like I am repeating myself. But I guess I was really hung up on that show. (There is still a part of me that is saying, maybe this still could happen).The one thing that I have worked on is the Violet Lotus project. I have what I consider to be an unfinished demo, but the boss really liked it, so I am just waiting for a meeting to see what I will need to do to finish it up. I started fixing the new recording but didn't get too far. Forced Perspective is finished I think, and Electro-Mechanical got a new bass line. I will have to re-do the arpeggios and that one might be done. Unicorn may need another attempt at vocals or the painstaking process of fixing them. Through my Tears needs new vocals, and I don't know if my voice is strong enough yet after being sick. Arcadia needs new drums and then a ton of fixes. And Bad News First is still just a rough demo. 13 December 2022 My juno-2 is in pieces all across my basement floor. I am finally trying to make time to fix it. As soon as I removed the keyboard I found the aftertouch sensor was unhooked, so that will be an easy fix. I removed the keys and found a speck of something in the rubber contact for one of the keys that isn't working. The other I cleaned but I will have too hook it up and see. The most difficult fix will be the back light. Now that I have it all apart, it looks like it has been replaced before and some of the darkening on the may actually be on the plastic window or the LCD. I guess I can only replace the part and hope for the best. In other news I almost bid on a MKS-80. I don't really have the cash but I was willing to put up 2K (probably more) on it. The auction ended higher anyway (around $4500) but that is WAY below eBay prices. In the end I just felt too guilty spending that much on 1 piece of gear. Probably for the best with Christmas coming up and my truck is starting to do something weird. I did buy a D-20 keyboard and PG-10 controller. I am so bad. The kit themselves were inexpensive enough, but the shipping will be expensive. The D-20 and Pg-10 will be about $600 all in. The D-20s are generally pretty cheap but the controllers are ridiculous, so I think I did OK. I guess we will see when they calculate the shipping. 
15 December 2022 I am SO pissed off. I cleaned the keys and tested them and they seem to work, so then I took the display off and tried to replace the backlight. It actually slid out quite easily from underneath the display, so I just soldered the new one in. Then the LCD didn't work. I tried moving cables around, but no change, so all I can think is that somehow I broke it. FUCK. Well I guess I can order a new display, it sucks, but it can be done. So I decided to start putting the keyboard back together. I put all the keys back in and screwed in the keybed, (which was no easy task) and just wanted to test the keys. Then nothing. A fucked up display, and keys that don't work at all now. So I just turned a $1000 keyboard into a useless blob of crap. I am so pissed off. 23 December 2022 Well I finally had a couple of days off, and they have been productive days. So yesterday I looked at the juno and bit by bit I kinda got it working again. I lost the memory (any new sounds), but almost everything is working again. Not sure what I did but it was bad. The display still isn't working so I ordered an OLED one. We will see if I can get that to work when it arrives, sometime in February. I should replace the battery while I have this partially apart, but I actually have it partly together and it is a huge pain, so I may just leave it. My PG-10 arrived but there was an issue with the weight for the D-20 so it will be a few more days and a lot more on the shipping. Still about 500$ for the D-20 all in and about 250$ for the controller, still not bad. I think I got suckered on a kick pedal I bought though. About 180$ all in. I will have to be more careful. There is another MKS-80 up for sale at 2400$. If that is what it sells at I may throw in a bid. If it sells for 4K like the last one, I don't think I can swing it. Then I wrote another new song yesterday. Oh I started a new song a coupld days ago, I'm calling it Crooked Smile. I was thinking I would see if the branding company would be interested in it, no word yet so I will keep working on it like it is my own (when I have time). But the new, new song is not very commercial, but I really like it. I will call it If You're Freaking Out. Yesterday I finally worked on drums for Arcadia and worked out an arrangement for Bad News First. So yesterday was quite productive. Today I finally recorded the bits for Electro-Mechanical. I got mixes of that and Forced perspective. The I figured I would try to sing Smiling Through and soon that was completed as well. I did something bad and recorded vocoder vocals for the new version of Frantic Romantic and my own rap bit. So I have my version of it complete now, maybe that's for the final years box set. lol. I actually had to fix the drums for Arcadia a bit then I recorded them. I am tired so I think I will leave things here. Bad News First is ready to record, and I still need lyrics for Arcadia, but the others are pretty much done. Then it is onto some of the other new songs I am working on. 30 December 2022 I missed a day of recording here. I finished the lyrics Arcadia, and added some drum fills to Electro-Mechanical. I recorded the vocals for Arcadia and any other little keyboard bits that were missing. Oh like a solo. I listened to it for a few days and wanted to change a few things so today I fixed a few vocals. I listened to Unicorn to see if there was anything on the vocal I would fix and not really, so that is done. I fixed the drum fills for Electro-Machanical and I recorded Bad News First (finally). So my album is complete (maybe) but I want to sit on it for a bit. I want to preform a couple Houseparty0.6 shows first, then hopefully some Antigone shows and then maybe an album. But hopefully before bed I will make a CD and start to upload Houseparty0.5 Live. I was thinking about it and I will just release it. Something for this year. 7 January 2023 So I released Houseparty0.5Live! Dec 31. It contains: AlterneathA (excerpts) 9.31 Freedumb 3.25 Unhappy Robots 4.38 Anmethyst1 11.32 Forbidden Planet 8.20 The Stylophone was too loud in the first mix of Bad News First so I toned it down, and I think my album is complete.I started working on a couple more ideas, Crooked Smile, & Freaking Out. Although not arranged or anything I don't think it will take much time to get them complete. So I was toying with the idea of a doulble album, but truthfully I don't really want to. So maybe I will just make a Vol 2 when I have enough songs assembled. I have the cover for Violet Lotus in there, but I am 99% sure that is just a placeholder. I did run across a song that I REALLY want to record. I had a set of songs for a project that got abandoned, and this song Re-entry I thought was really good (there are many others that are good but I'm not sure I want to use them for the Bėker project). So I think that is on the list for sure. I will have to iron out the arrangement yet, but I think the majority of it is there. Re-entry is over 7 minutes, Freaking Out I'm guessing will be over 6, and Crooked Smile is about 4, so literally 1 side is in the works. I don't want to make another epic like Arcadia, so there are probably another 4 or 5 songs needed if I make this Vol 2. SO ... my D-20 finally arrived! It is awesome, and it came with 4 sound cards. I hooked up the programmer and played with stuff till 1am. I am still surprised how utilitarian the disk drive operation is (and it works fine BTW after travelling from Japan with a disk in the drive). I am going on a trip soon, so I probably won't have too much time to dedicate to anything. On the Buyee front, I bought a cymbal for 80$ and a M-160 mixer for 30$. It's always the shipping that kills me.  
5 February 2023 Not much has changed in the last month. I took some time off of work and left the country for almost a week, then back to work. That is the time killer. Not only am I there more often that I would like, but when I do come home I am generally to tired to do anything. In spite of this I have been listening to the songs and hear a few things I want to re-record and fix. The only synth thing is the stylophone. The cord is broke and crackles, there is one place in particular that is bad and should be fixed. The rest are vocals. Unsually the first few lines, as I guess they are kind of important. And I will have to go through the vocal for Unicorn, which will be painstakingly painful, but it will have to be done. Electro-Mechanical, I think, is done. After playing with the D-20 for a couple of weeks, I am sad to say I don't find it as inspiring as some of my other keyboards, but I want to try something. I have an idea for another ambient album, and some of the sound effects will be perfect for that. I would like to use the Juno-2 to help with the sound palette. So I am not sure what I will be recording or working on first, but there are a few things I want to work on: fixes for My Elecrtics are Leaking, the ambient album tentitively titled Sea of Tranquility and new songs for My Elecrtics are Leaking Vol 2. And speaking of my Juno-2 I finally put in the new OLED display 2 days ago. IT LOOKS AWESOME!! So now I will just have to work on the other project, the Waverex U-20 sample card. I have been having some issues finding loop points but I think there are a few other issues as well. It is something I will just have to keep working at. Then finally if I ever get to it I will have to try to open up and repair my JX-3p. Oh and the M-160 mixer I bought, it's crap. Every single pot and slider crackles. When I have time I will have to clean everything on/in it. Then I want to re-organize my racks. The synths will go into the 4U rack and the M-160, quintet will go into the 12U, and the M-120 and VP-70 will come out. The M-120 will need to be repaired and the VP-70 sadly will probably be sold. I am starting to have a lot of stuff that has to be sold. And speaking of auctions, I guess I am feeling down because I have bought a bunch of crap! I am bidding on 2 auctions that I am hoping will complete my drum kit. (NEVER DO THIS AGAIN!). I am sure that over the course of the last 3 or 4 years this kit has cost over 8 or 900$!! And because I am dumb I impulse bought an A-220. I totally don't need it but I bought it. I would like to purchase a couple of more inexpensive synths like a Poly-800 or a CS-2x, but my wife will kill me if I buy any more synths, so I will leave it for now. And finally I haven't booked anything. I keep coming up with excuses, but I am pretty sure they are just that, excuses. 9 February 2023 I have been having a hard time motivating myself, but today I finished (the arrangement and lyrics anyway) for the 2 newish songs. Crooked Smile and Freaking Out are complete. I think Freaking Out will need some additional parts that build it up as it goes along, but that is a pretty small thing. Oh I catually forgot I have to go through and remove several bars. Every time through I waited 2 times through each progression, and that is too long. I will just keep it to one. I think the time on it at the moment is over 8 minutes, when I truncate it, it should be close to 6.30. So not much but I am excited about the new songs. I have to get motivated to make the fixes to the songs that are already recorded. And maybe even motivated enough to book some shows. 22 February 2023 So I wrote this really cool tune called Sorta Freaking Out. I ended up recording it because I thought it was so good. But it didn't seem to translate. I am really disappointed with the recording actually, so I have left it. I could record Crooked Smile, I would just have to fix a few things but I just haven't. Re-entry isn't much further along. On the booking front I have sent out some feelers and got my first rejection. There are possibly 2 more but I will have to follow up to be sure, and one just hasn't responded at all. On the buying front, things have been going badly. I think I have to stop getting shit from Buyee. The shipping is too expensive and too frustrating. Every package is held up with a 15-25 $ fee and there seems to be no internet/digital support. Fedex and UPS are seriously living in the dark ages. So I have some drum bits coming at some point. I just need a few more things and when my drums are complete I will stay away from Buyee (unless one of my big items comes up for dirt cheap). I did buy a few things from eBay. I just got an A-220. Did I need it? nope. But I have one now. I also ordered the fairly rare Super Acoustic Guitar card for the U-20. Although it hasn't arrived yet. The only cards I am missing now are 4 (Electric piano) and 16 (super brass). Which I am sure I will buy at some point. If I have money I will buy the bright red keyaboard stand I have had ny eye on for some time. And for the songs that are already recorded for Leaking. I guess I am done, they are finished. OH and one last thought. I thinkn there is still something wrong with my Juno-2. I am hoping it is just an adjustment of some kind. Some sounds are really loud and they generally have the chorus on, then others are really quiet. There also seems to be some wierd phasing issue with a long chorus. 6 March 2023 I am trying to not buy too much for a while. I am still thinking about the red keyboard stand, but not much else at the moment. I haven't completed any more recording either. The big thing I did was re-organize my keyboards. So the D-20 and Juno-2 are in with the main keyboard set up and the Juno-Di is in the TV room. The phsing issue is not apparrent from the out puts so it must be just a headphone issue. I have reached out to some venues about bookings but I have only had very vauge replies or none at all. It's really hard when I am working to book stuff. I am generally too tired when I get home to do anything, and people dropping the ball like that is just frustrating. I have a couple more elements for my show, some lamps, now all I need is some black plastic. And to book shows. Soon I will too busy at work to pursue this any more so I hope I can get something nailed down. Oh and my A-220 arrived, I haven't even had a chance to hook it up and test it. 12 March 2023 I may have made a mistake. I bid on a MKS-70. It is way below market value but there is no guarantee that it works. I guess we will see if I win it or not. I did buy the red keyboard stand, it is on it's way. I am bidding on an anti-feedback box and I bought one arm for my cymbals, 2 more to go. So I am not doing well about not buying more shit. I am trying to book shows. But it is not going so well. The Regina place is interested but the emails are very slow. Been turned down by a few places, and maybe the artsy place in Saskatoon. Just the way they worded the email, I am not sure, so I sent another. I have had some gothic organ parts I have been playing for a few days now, and today I may have made them into a song. It kinda reminds me of La Grange. Basically it is an excuse for a solo. This one is called Tired of Zombies. I have played it about 5 times already today. 20 March 2023 So like a big dummy I have been playing Re-entry in the wrong key. I actually had to re-learn the song. So the bulk of the drums are finally finished for this one. So this will just need some polishing on the sequence. Oh and I fixed what ever bits needed fixing in Crooked Smile as well as Tired of Zombies. So those are ready to record when ever I want. I started working on the longer song I want, but basically just added another idea to the sequencer for now. The bookings, well I am still waiting for emails. The Regina one is about 90% nailed down, the Saskatoon one I am not too sure. That one may not happen, I may have to look for alternate venues. Oh and I lost the auction for the MKS-70. Probably for the best I really don't have the cash at the moment. 17 April 2023 I haven't done much on the writing or recording side of things. Just enjoying playing the songs when I have a chance. The booking thing has gone terrible. The Regina venue stopped answering emails and I have no phone number. So I tried another great looking venue and it seems like Regina is full of gatekeepers. Apparently my money alone isn't good enough. I want to phone them, but I need a strong mind, and I just didn't have it today. The Prince Albert venue, which I thought was a gimme, said they cannot allow public events greater than 10 people! While I know it is not thier fault, I was counting on just booking it when ever, but that won't happen now. I messaged another local venue, but no response yet. The only place that seems kind of interested is Saskatoon, but I keep asking for dates that they have something booked. So when I have the gumption I will have to phone there as well. So I had planned to actually play last weekend, but the venues are just dumb. Then next set of dates are coming up (may4,5,6) and it is unlikely that I will be playing then either. So playing = we hate you, quit bothering us. But I did something really dumb today. I bought the last 2 pieces for my drums and ... I bought a Yamaha SK-20! It was only 152$, so even if the shipping is 300$, it's only about 450$ (and it should be less than that). They sell on Reverb for 1500$-2500$!! In a way I know it is a limited synth, but it may be the only old Yamaha I can afford. I would love to get the CS-50 selling in Lethbridge, but even if I had the 5000$, could I justify spending that much on a synth? Not really. I am excited to have something other than a Roland in the fold. Yamaha's that I can afford that I am interested in are the DX-7 and the CS-2x. I was also watching a JX-3p. It sold for about 450$. If I can buy one at that price I would use it to fix my JX. So I finally took a damp cloth and cleaned all the old keyboards. The JX needed a cleaning very badly. I also moved the top tier so the JX is more accessable. Took a picture (the other 5 keyboards are on the other side and not very organized), and now I will call it a night.  
22 April 2023 So busy at work, I finally got a chance to play a bit today. I did get a bit of somewhat good news. One of the Regina venues may let me play. The only thing is, it takes forever with thier correspondance, and will be about 1000$. So possibly a Saskatoon and Regina gig. Maybe, at a undetermined date. The Prince Albert venue has still not responded, I may have to look for alternate places here. I did something really dumb yesterday. I finally bought the EP-6060 I have wanted. It was 50$, but shipping will be, well alot. I think there is some kind of holiday there right now (in Japan), because all this sweet gear that usually zips around pretty quickly is moving at a snails pace. The Yamaha is still in transit to the warehouse in Japan! I am thinking of bidding on a Jupiter 6, but we will see where the price ends up. It may be out of my price range before it ends tomorrow morning. I think my next purchace will have to be another 3 tier keyboard stand. I am watching another JX-3p, but it is with a PG-200 and is already over 400$, so I may have to pass on it.  28 April 2023 So not much new on the booking front. I did call a place in Greater Vancouver, but only got an answering machine. Nothing new from any of the other venues.I did think of another venue here in PA, but it would not be my first choice, just because it is pretty small. Maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing. I am excited and anxious for my new keyboards to arrive. And I was right there is a huge set of holidays coming up. I think there are 3 holidays, anyway, so many they just call it golden week. Luckily both keyboards were on thier way before the holidays begin (tomorrow).The Yamaha should be here on Monday (in 2 days) and the Roland on Tuesday. There are so many other REALLY good items for sale, a MKS-70 (with bonus gear) for 550$, a Yamaha DX-5 for 2K. I would love to buy the DX-5, but really don't have the money. I may throw a bid in on the MKS-70, we'll see. 14 May 2023 Well that is disappointing. I had been watching a Yamaha CS-50 for some time, and I figured if I used up ALL of my savings I could afford it. I have a work trip that will take me to Swift Current, and the keyboard is in Medicine Hat, another 2 hrs drive. It was all lining up, but there was a bit of hesitation. Should I spend all of my money on this? In the end I think I would have. It was 5K and worth about 15. Then this morning 2 days before I leave it has been taken down. It either sold or the seller got tired of listing it. So that ends any debate there may have been. I will watch for another of a comparable price or a Jupiter 6 on Buyee but I am doubtful. I SHOULD use the money for a better investment, but I am dumb. The EP-6060 and SK-20 arrived several weeks ago. The transformer on the 6060 sounds terrible and probably needs to be replaced, but works fine. The more interesting SK-20 has some issues, the Vibrato and Organ preset 3 are not working yet. But it may be some of the connector cables need to be re-seated. I tried a few and the tremolo started working. This is a pretty cool machine, but I guess I could never gig with it. I almost forgot, I bought a JX-3P to repair my own and a Korg POLY-800. The 800 is what I ALMOST bought instead of the JX-3P back in 1984, so that should be interesting. Plus it has reverse keys! Because they must have gotten backlogged over golden week, shipping has been slow. 23 May 2023 Well that is disappointing. I guess that is kind of my mantra. So both the JX-3p and the poly-800 arrived today. The poly 800 looks like it is in great shape. It was missing the adapter so I bought one and it arrived several days ago. I opened the package for the JX-3p and it was so DIRTY! So I plugged them in and ... The JX-3p seems fine. One key wasn't working but I can tell it's just dirty. The Poly-800 was the disappointment, for some reason it is stuck in tape mode. No button I press will get it out. And no sound in that mode. So I guess I will have to do some research, get a manual, and get a schematic. Hopefully it's something I can fix.  09 August 2023 'kin 'ell!! I just quickly read the last entry and I can't beleive that I didn't update this, but after some testing I am certain that the poly 800 just needs a new battery. It is a bit of an operation as the original one is just soldered in, so I have to install a battery holder and there isn't enough space on the circuit board. I was waiting for colder weather to attempt that. But the reason I am making this entry, is because last night I recorded 2 pieces of music. A couple of short intro and outro bits. They are weird but I really like them. Then today I recorded another song. It is 19 minutes long. It will definately need a lot of refinement, but it is shaping up really nice. Then just before turning off everything, I got another idea, so I have another 1:30 of then next song. I thought they would be more ambient, and perhaps they half are, but the first long song builds to a ridiculous creshendo. The intent was to use only my new keyboards, so on these recordings so far are the Juno-2, D-20, EP-6060, and my Yamaha SK-20! If I had the Poly-800 fixed it would be on here too. But this only hapened because it rained today. I still have a few outdoor projects to finish. 18 August 2023 So I am unhappy with the drums and I figured why don't I set up my roland drumset and just play it. Then I started to realise how much work this would entail. I set up my drums anyway. It needed to be done, I haven't set everything up completely yet and don't even know if everything works. So I have a full set with the TD-3, just the high hat pedal isn't working. It is literally just a switch so I should be able to get it going, when I have time. I would have to send a MIDI line to my D-20 and record the drums. I'm pretty sure I could find something long enough to hook the drums to the D-20 via MIDI. I tried playing along and truthfully it is a bit beyond my skill level of drumming. So in the end I hooked up the TD-4 module through the D-20 with one of the extra pads I have, and just tried to play the snare rolls at the end. I am not sure I was successful. It was really hard playing that to a click. I want to shorten some of the last solo section and lengthen the previous mellow part. I also hear a melody in the first sequenced part that I want to add. I don't really have time for this now, but probably soon. BECAUSE .... Also I have booked 2 shows. One in Saskatoon for Sept 16th and one in Prince Albert for Nov 17th. The september one is still a bunch of bits and bobs in the air. The November one will be easy, just show up and play. So I guess I will have to get on it. Oh and I was also watching another auction on a Jupiter 6. It sold for about 6K. Still cheaper than most auctions, but about 3K above what I really have to spend. 19 August 2023 Last night before bed I made a nice new cover for a fictional album. The problem with things like this is, I start to make them. I have at least 1 big project that I want to finish outside, but the weather is not good. And I have to start getting organized for the gig in September. Oh and for the mysterious Problems I was having with the Juno-2 and M-16, it was my stupid 1/4 to 1/8 adapter for my headphones. 29 August 2023 I had an idea on my walk and 2 hours later I had a complete song. It is quite short, 2:59, but I like that. It will be called Lights on Volume 2 of Leaking. I am super stoked about it. So I have almost the whole album written now. Just the song Rusted. There will be a long part and a reprise at the end of the album. I just checked to see where I am at with that. So I have about 4 or 5 parts, I will just have to start connecting them. BUT, Leaking is no longer a priority for me. I have the 2 Houseparty shows coming up, then (or during) I want to finish editing and then re-recording some of the parts for Mare Ibrium. I am unsure if I want to do a few more Houseparty shows or get the Antigone show together maybe for next spring. Don't know. 31 August 2023 I am starting to see the pattern, I am starting to crash. I'm hoping there is a way to avoid it. The only thing I can think is to try to power through it. The first thing I have to do is get my gig (in 2 weeks) back on track. That will be the first thing. Then I guess I will have to re-record whole huge chunks of Mare Ibrium. I don't want to, but I just will. I think the issue is not being able to get ahold of the venue. Noone answers the phone, noone returns calls. It is SO frustrating, and I have some important questions that need to be answered. I also think the biggest roadblock for the gig is to find a door person that I can trust. But there are other things. I want to re-record all of the talking bits for the show. Maybe I should do some for the one in November as well. Anyway I have an hour before work. 06 September 2023 AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. I. I feel. I feel like. I'm in a burning building and I gotta go. So things just started to coalesce, Rich was onboard as the opener, I had a doorman in place, then it all went sideways. So I am hoping I can convince someone to open, but it is starting to get late. I have like 10 days or so. Then my recording interface blows up. So I have edited Mare Ibrium into almost something, but I can't record ATM. 13 October 2023 Well. The show went well, but like most, it was poorly attended. Concise opened, the show went fairly smooth. I was mostly nervous about setting the alarm when I left but that seems to have went OK as well. After absorbing the pros and cons of the show, I did feel I should book one in Regina. I really wanted to, but there are just too many things going on for me. Work is taking a huge chunk more than it used to and I don't like it, but I can pay the bills, and that is a good thing. I have a show with another 2 projects and it is also taking a large chunk of my time. I don't know why I didn't think it would. So another week and that will be done. Then I can start concentrating on the upcoming show in town and trying to finish my recording. So in the end I have decided I will put off booking a show for Regina till March or so. Maybe at that time I can book something in Winnipeg as well. It is disappointing, but I think I have to own my losses and defeats. There was also a difficult truth for the other project. It is an issue of not enough time and money. So that means that any Antigone show is summer to fall of 2024 or later or not at all. The weather has started to turn so I am spending more time inside, but there is another possible issue. With the huge storm that happened this spring, the basement flooded again and was damaged. They are now looking at repairing it, which is good, but I will have to remove everything from the basement. Because it will be a big job, I have thought about doing it in phases. I won't need my Antigone set-up till next year, so that will be the first to get packed. My old JX-3p needs serious repairs so I may pack that as well. If and when I complete the new recording all of the new keyboards could be packed as well. Which would leave basically the old system, which could be packed at that time as well. Also the recording computer. The one thing I am unsure about is where I will put my main computer because I will still need it. Oh and at the end (maybe even before that) I will move the Juno-Di upstairs to use. Sort of like I did with the Artificial set-up, but much less crowded. And it reminds me I finally got the Korg Poly-800 going. It turned out, that there are no back-up batteries installed. You use the batteries that would run the keyboard. It took a bit of playing around but I finally got the factory presets loaded. The keyboard sounds really good. It reminds me of the Juno-1, but also has a secret weapon, and that is it's 6 stage envelope. There are 2 bad things though. One is the filter is paraphonic, there are 2 choices for this. One I uses the envelope until all keys are released, or it retriggers for each keypress. The other is a bit more devious. It is 8 note polyphonic unless the sound stacks the oscillators (and many do) then it is 4 note polyphonic. Playing 2 parts on this keyboard is simply annoying. Either the filter isn't triggering, or is triggering all the time, or you start to lose notes when you play. BUT if you just play 1 part the sound is awesome! Oh and I have been experimenting with my Waverex card. I have a several questions to ask the programmer, but I can make sounds for the U-20!  17 October 2023 Although I am getting ready for another couple projects live show, I thought I might have time to work on Mare Nubium. This issue is that Roland's BPM and my DAW's BPM do not match. So I used the DAW's click to record some parts and used the D-20's Sequencer to record other parts, and now nothing is in time, and I don't know if I can get it in time. Maybe if I was used to working in FL studio I could make it all match up, but the way I have things as they stand, I doubt it. I knew I would have to re-record some parts, and I was hoping I could just sequence the drums and re-record them. But no. Maybe it's just my DAW, but I cannot get the drum sequence to match the bass sequence I recorded several months ago. And I have tried several times with several different ideas to fix it, with no luck. So the choice is simple but painful. I have to use one timing (I'm thinking MIDI clock out of my DAW) and re-record everything after the 9:30 mark. Because it is fine up till then (timing-wise). As I said this is painful as this is around 10 minutes of music I would have to re-record. I am almost thinking I will just use a MC-50 to sequence it. The sequencer on the D-20 is too primitive and it would be impossible to edit properly. I really wanted to just use that, but like the PR-100 has almost nothing for editing capabilities. Where-as I should be able to bang up the next section in an hour or 2, and that would be sequencing everything, drums, bass, leads and what ever other bits need to do done. Plus I could fix velocity issues. I am too used the the non-dynamic Juno-1, and hear things that I played on the Juno-2 not very well. This may give me the chance to incorporate some Poly-800 in, now that I know it works. It sucks, but it has to be done. 18 October 2023 So I started the process of redoing most of the parts. So the second sequenced part is recorded and I think it is finished. SO I am up to about the 12 minute mark. I have some of the backing tracks finished up to the 15 minute mark. This part is quiet and I don't think it will be too difficult to finish. The new parts sound SO much better because they are in time!! Plus I added a few bits near the beginning. It is the last sequenced part, that last 4 minutes that could be challenging. I should be able to finish that tomorrow. Maybe I could have a first mix of this tomorrow. But first sleep. 25 October 2023 I have been incredibly sick. But I felt I should try to do something productive, the previous days it has been difficult as I would go back to bed after a few hours. Yesterday was my last day at home, so I spent most of it replacing all the parts in the newly sequenced sections that were no longer in time. I also added quite a few new parts and dumped a few dumb tracks. My first impressions of it are that I have done well overall. I may have to nudge a few things into time a bit more, a bit tedious, but it will make it sound better. I can't sequence some of the parts because some of these keyboards do not have MIDI. I think the only thing I don't feel as strongly about is the very last section. It seems to be less dynamic. Perhaps I need to add a bit more sound. I may have to add a few bars to the second last part, as the solo goes into the next section. So definately not a final mix, but very close. I don't think much more recording is necessary, just a wee bit and some editing. 26 October 2023 This started as a project to update the bėker discography some where. It ended up taking up several hours over 2 days. It was also a nice walk down memory lane as I put on the live3 album (and several unreleased songs) to listen to while updating this. So 14 official releases, 3 official videos. But I am not even close to being done. I hope to release my about half completed album and I have one more show coming up before the year is out. And while I said I wouldn't buy any more keyboards, if the price is right I may have to. I almost forgot, I bought more stuff. Not recently, well one was. But before my trip this summer I bought an Akia S-1000. The disk drive to toast so I will have to replace that. I am thinking I will just buy a USB replacement. I also bought an Akai MB73, which is a 7 channel MIDI programmable audio mixer. Impulse buys. I haven't hooked any of them up (or the A-220) to even test. Then just recently I put in a bid on a Roland M-16E mixer. I was pretty sure that I wouldn't win, but I did, so I have another 16 channel mixer without a purpose. So no more random bidding. 1 November 2023 I'm not even sure what day I did this, but I made a few edits and recorded about 4 notes to fix Mare Nubium (I'm serious it was literally just 4 notes!). I think it is done. Oh I guess I made videos and posted them so the dates will be there. I want to start getting the ideas on for Mare Imbium but it seems a bit overwhelming. I guess it is just what I want to try to do. I want to try to use the TD-3 to sequence the drums for the first bits of Mare Imbium. The reason I want to sequence them is 2 fold. One: I'm not sure my drumming skills are up to the task and this way I can fix mistakes easily. The other is, I'm not sure if I want the actual TD-3 drum sounds or the D-20 drums sounds. I was thinking I would have to sync everything up to my DAW (and this is a ginormous pain), but I just realized now as I am typing this, everything that is recorded will have to be re-recorded anyway. I could just sequence everything first and then sync the MC-50 to the DAW. Many of the first tracks are made with the Yamaha SK-20 which is not MIDI equipped, but I could use scratch tracks on the sequencer and record the SK-20 tracks later. Yes, I see this as the way forward. Even if I totally suck on the drums I can fix what needs to be fixed and even have a good portion of the arrangement set up before permenently recording anything. I'm glad I had this talk with myself. 8 November 2023 I had an idea about writing one new song for this upcoming gig. Then I hit a manic wave and not only did the song sound great, it felt profound! Like I was writing a love letter to the world. So I recorded it yesterday and now that some of my manic thoughts have disippated somewhat, I still think it is good, but not this profound message for the ages that I thought it was. Because I was in a hurry there are several things I will have to fix. The drums are a big one, I just couldn't get the fills in the right spots, so the drums are a mess. I should be able to edit them in, it will just take some time. I will also have to nudge a few things that are not quite in time. But the biggest thing (or 2) is the lyrics still need a few fixes and because I am still sick my voice sounds like crap. I had this idea that I might get the two openers for the show to contribute to this track ( Concise and Brindan) but I am still on the fence on that. The plan was to have this ready for next friday's gig, but if I include anyone else, it always increases the amount of time recording takes. We will see. And if I have time there is still the Mare Imbrium to work on as well. So instead I recorded 2 new songs. I got a quick idea, really jazzy but also really sad. So yaa, it's about death. Then there was a sequence that put put into the new JX-3p that I really liked and thought I could do a poem and some improvising. So I recorded both of those, and fixed the drums on All Change. I was about to call it a day and thought I may as well add the one keyboard track I wanted, and added (surprise) a track of organ. Then I thought I may as well fix the solo. I improvised about 4 times before I kept one. Then I was just about to close it and thought I may as well fix the vocals. So I did. I will listen to the mix for the next few days. Ultimately I think I am finished the new songs, so I will put the Yamaha back into place and maybe work on Mare Imbrium later. I guess I should get my show together as well. It is only 10 days away. 9 November 2023 I am starting to feel a bit overwhlemed. I have a week to get ready! It seems like there is a lot to do. I hooked up the stuff for Mare Imbrium and practiced the drums along with a quick sequence I made. So this could work, but I think I will have to put this on the back burner for the moment. More important is getting the word out, so at least this show is a bit more populated than the last. So although today all I did was listen to my songs, tomorrow I will have to try to accomplish something. After that it is back to work till just before the show. I have the full programs printed out, but the little ones need a fix or two. The cassette covers need a fix as do the CDs. I should be able to spin off 4 houseparty CDs as well, that should be enough for next weekend. 10 November 2023 Didn't feel like I accomplished a lot. I did a quick remix on All Change & Fuzzy. Added the single remix to the disc, and then printed out things, folded things, copied things, and I still have a lot to do. But I think I am on track, maybe. I am re-loading all of the old video for the housepsrty gig so I can 1) make an ad, 2) add some better audio to the houseparty DVD. I won't re-do it all but I have audio for Whole, Pretty Boi, Amethyst1&2, Forbidden Planet, and maybe I'll do a couple more. 11 November 2023 I just have one thing to say that I missed previously. This will be the last Houseparty0.6 show on friday. 16 November 2023 Just before show day and of course I get more sick instead of better. And it's not for a lack of trying. So I didn't get the practice I wanted in today. I practiced the new songs, but I don't think I want to try them yet. I don't think I'm ready. So I am out of time on a couple of things. The song Mare Imbrium is coming along but still in the sequencing demo stage. I will have to edit a lot of drumming before I start recording. The cassette idea was good but I just didn't have time to copy the cassettes, not even 5 of them. My computer program was being an asshole so I will have to re-render the saskatoon Houseparty show yet again. Well hopefully I can sing tomorrow and don't forget any parts. 21 November 2023 Today I went through the last of the sequenced drums. I am recording them and we will see if I can put on the tracks or if I have to be a bit more detailed on getting things into time. It is SO tedius. I don't think I will record drums this way again. I am just not good enough. So maybe in a few days this will be complete. I almost forgot about the show. It went really well, I am just disappointed about the turn out yet again. This time there were a bunch of people who swore up and down they would be there, but they weren't. I have the video and it is quite good. I had issues with my audio again. I plugged it into the ext in. And Clay, who does the sound at this venue, had audio, but there were issues with it as well. 11 second gaps randomly throughout the show. I managed to make it work, but something is going on with my burner. I think the laser might be finfished. I can't burn DVDs. This has been an issue for several days. I finally realized I have a solution right here. I have a ton of old DVD burners that I could use. I will just have to find a place to insert it. Then I can burn copies of the last 2 shows (finally) and get it off of my hard drive. So unless I hear something really horrible I think the drums are recorded. 2 guide tracks as well. So next will be the SK-20, but I don't think I will do it tonight. I attempted a stereo string track from the new JX, but it is totally crapping out. I was hoping I could sort of shape the end, but I guess that will be another day. Oh and I did something very very bad. I bought a Poly 61. Not sure what kind of shape it is in, I hope the battery corrosion is minimal, but we will see when it arrives. In a completely different line of thought, I think I will have to finish up recording Artificial, Ghosts and whatever other old ideas are sitting around. I'm afraid they will get left behind. Especially Ghosts, I think that music is special.   22 November 2023 Oh and finally I uploaded the All change album. I made a few fixes to the catalogue and finally added Live 3 as well. I also put in a bid on a Jupiter 6! Scary!  23 November 2023 So I didn't win the auction for the Jupiter 6. Part of me is relieved, because I put in a bid of 4200$. And while that was not enough (and I kind of knew it) it is a lot of money for me and there wouldn't have been much left for my trip. That one sold for 6500$ and another popped up, someone desperatley needed the money (I feel bad for that person) and that one also sold for around 6500$. So the hunt for a Jupiter 6 or a CS-50 continues. I worked on Mare Imbrium and put most of the SK-20 on. I added an ending with the Juno-1. I tried to use the JX-3p for the strings but the new one is being an asshole. The output jacks are crackling really bad and the last take was nothing but static. So I left it there last night. If I have time before or after work I will keep adding to it. 27 November 2023 I finally had time to do some recording today. So I started with the ending and added the JX-3p I had wanted. I used the headphone jack so I could avoid all the static and noise. I fixed one of the Juno tracks as well. I also added another track of SK-20 strings. The ending is this swirling string thing with 6 tracks of 4 different synth strings. I will come back to this later as I want to add a bit of improv here. I then turned my attention to the first chunk. I was thinking for the most part I would just double the melody. I got a few ideas while doing that and added a bunch of stuff but listening to it, it all comes in too soon. So I moved it to the next time through and of course it is out of time. I am quite tired for some reason and I think I will leave it there for tonight. I am making progress, I guess I just was hoping I could finish it. I don't want to do this too half-assed, so I will try to be patient. That is difficult for me. So it's funny that I ended up buying the Poly-61. I have actually been trying to buy a Polysix for a cheaper price. Lots of swings and misses. I don't know why but I just want to buy more stuff! There is a DW6000 for a really good price on reverb, but I really want an old Ensoniq. I would LOVE to have another ESQ-1, but they are always over 1000$. I would jump on a Mirage, EPS, SQ-80 or EPS16 for the right price, but people generally want too much for them. Like the Akai X-7000, they always want 700$ or more for one! The issue is all of the synths are getting more expensive and a 'cheap' synth is 500$ or less, soon it will be anything less than 1000$. The Poly 61 took a pretty big bite out of my loose change, and I like to keep enough on hand just in case one of my grails comes up for an unrealisticly low price. Oh and I bought an Akia XE8 drum module because I just don't know when to stop. 28 November 2023 So I worked on Mare Imbrium today. I may have finished it! Making a mix of it as I write this. Mare Imbrium is a bit different from Mare Nubium, in that it has a strong melody line through out the first 12 minutes. I guess I could have written lyrics to it, if I felt it was that kind of song. I'm hoping it sounds good to me, I think I am getting tired of this project. I also sadly started putting keyboards away. Yesterday the old U-20, Rs-5, and Juno-1, and today the TD-3, and Yamaha SK-20 and maybe the poly-800. Before I put the EP-6060 away, I have this dumb idea about using the EP-6060 and the EP-11 for an EP. I'm thinking about calling it Unloved. Not sure if I can write 4 songs woth just these keyboards, but I think I will try. 29 November 2023 Last night I listened to Mare Imbrium and made a few changes and called it done. I uploaded the album this morning, so Sea of Tranquility is now out in the world. Then before I went to bed I made a drum track with the EP-11 drums (the samples) and started my EP-6060 song. It is called Tourmaline and I think it is quite good. I may have to fix some stuff, but I think it is done tonight. I will listen to it a bit.  1 December 2023 My Poly-61 arrived. I had to wait until after work. It looks in good shape, just a little dirty. But it is damaged, I am pretty sure it is battery damage. The display doesn't work properly, if at all, and the sounds are all messed up. I will open it up when I have a chance.    17 December 2023 I didn't realize it but it has been a very busy couple of weeks. Work has been busy, and I have been trying to get ready for a gig with my other musical project. In the meantime I opened and cleaned the board for the poly 61 as best as I could and removed the old battery. I sorta soldered in a new battery holder, but there are still issues. I think there is just too much damage. Even if I did fix it, it would only be temporary, as there is no way to stop the corrosion, all I could do is slow it down. So my new plan is to buy one of the clone replacement boards. It will be just over 300$ but will solve issues into the future. While I am at it I am looking at some MIDI upgrades to, I mean I might as well. Aside from that not much has happened. I have tried to hook up my large system to work on the Ghost songs, but I removed a MIDI cable somewhere are I can't figure out where it is missing. I don't want to but it might be a good time to take everything apart and switch the racks around a bit. I have to remove (and fix) the M-120 anf GP-16. The Vp-70 is moving out as well. The 4 synths (MKS-50,D-110,U-220,JV-880) will go into a 4 space rack by them selves. I will put one of the larger mixers into the 10 space rack and if I have room put the A-220 and the Quintet in there as well. I need to test the A-220 and MB-76 to make sure they are working. So things that need to be fixed : both JX-3ps mostly cleaning spray, the old one I would like to try the graphite fix as well. The EP-6060 needs cleaning spray or something on channel A. Then see why the XE-8 is distorting, and replace the drive on the S-2000. (as I said I will have to order the clone board for the poly 61 and a MIDI upgrade). There are other things I would like to do, but they are more involved and would require a lot of time (like a MIDI upgrade for the EP-11, and extend the decay on the EP-6060, add a soft attack and Maybe an effect like ensemble). Anyway my upcoming plans are to possibly do a last streaming Houseparty0.6 show (this idea is starting to wane on me) but re-learn, and record the Ghosts album and then possibly do a streaming show. I guess we will see what I'm able to finish. Oh and somewhere in there I will have to take down all of the keyboards so the renovations can happen. I have many of them down ATM, just the racks, the 6 keyboards from the old system and the new JX3p and new u20 are set up.  26 December 2023 I am just making this entry to say that I have ordered the replacement board for the poly 61 and it is hopefully in the mail. All in all it was a bit more expensive than I thought. Around 400$ CA, but I can't wait to put the board in and bring this synth back to life. For some reason I thought the MIDI upgrade was cheaper, but it is almost 300$, so I don't think I will be buying this right away. Unless I go with the cheaper and less useful option. But I think, 'less useful option' says it all. I also want the MIDI upgrade for the new JX as well, the organix upgrade is now sold by River or Series. So I will eventually get one from them. 30 December 2023 I have a phobia that I don't think has a name yet. It is the fear of starting something. Actually I guess that is Neophobia. But truthfully I know why. There are 2 things that I want to start but won't. One is tear apart and re-arrange the racks. Simply because there are literally hundreds of cords, it would be an extremely large job, and I won't have time to finish it before my trip. The other thing I won't do is start recording Ghosts, for the exact same reason (without the cords, maybe chords). So I found the MIDI cord that was hooked up wrong but now there are other problems. Channels on the M-120 not working, things hook up to the wrong MIDI chain. It would be better if I could hook it up but there just isn't the time. I have made good progress through the songs since yesterday. The only one I haven't made it through yet is Makeda.
|